1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the dissolution of polymers in water and, more particularly, this invention relates to a method of rapidly dissolving gels of water soluble polymers in water.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of solutions of water soluble polymers in thickening and flocculating applications is well known. Such applications include the clarification of aqueous solutions in mining and papermaking, and treatment of sewage and industrial wastes. Such solutions of polymers are also useful as stabilizers for drilling muds, and in the secondary recovery of petroleum by water flooding.
Although these polymers are most often available commercially as powders or as finely divided solids, they are most frequently utilized in aqueous solutions. This necessitates that the solid polymer be dissolved in water. Although the various polymers are more or less soluble in water, difficulty is often experienced in preparing aqueous polymer solutions because of their slow rate of dissolution and because the solid polymer is not readily dispersible in water.
Additional problems are associated with dissolving polymer gels in water. In one prior approach, a polymer gel is extruded, comminuted and then gently stirred in water for a period of several hours. While this prior method does reduce the time required for solution preparation, as measured from the gel pellet stage, gentle stirring for very substantial amounts of time is required. This requires large mixing tanks and long mixing times, since instantaneous dissolution of polymer is not obtained. As a result, the total time required for polymer dissolution is comparable to that required using dry polymer.